It’s the burning (heh) question when you see a product that has yet to feel the elegant caress of smoke. The one question that’s on the lips of everybody… who is yet to have dinner and likes bacon a bit more than they should.
That thing there; does it smoke good?
Well, intrepid food explorer, you’re in luck. For Sussex Smokehouse is on a quest to find new things to smoke in order to answer that very ponderance. Welcome to “But Does It Smoke Good?” a multimedia series (I’ll write on here and share images and video on social media while I can maintain enthusiasm) where we cold smoke things, try them and report back on whether it was worth the time, energy and expense to smoke things that aren’t usually cold smoked.
What sort of thing do you mean?
You ask a lot of questions, you know… Which is GREAT, cos I love answering them.
I’m talking other varieties of nut, herbs and spices and more unconventional products that might not spring to mind immediately when you think “smoked food”.
Not everything benefits from a lick of smoke. Some foods absorb it beautifully, while others just taste like regret and wasted effort (I’m looking at you, smoked and roasted hazelnuts, you absolute wrong’un).
We’ll be testing ingredients to see what works, what doesn’t, and what might end up in future Sussex Smokehouse products. We take suggestions too.
Already decided ingredients include:
- Blanched almonds (no skins)
- Pistachios (without shells)
- English mustard powder
- Tomato ketchup
- Sesame seeds
- Sugar (demerara and white granulated)
- Other stuff, but where’s the fun in telling you everything?
So What’s Going in the Smoking Cabinet First?
Now, there are zero stakes to this series that I thought of and decided to do, but it’s probably still sensible to set out some ground rules. Generally, I’ll try and use our usual, unique blend of oak and apple wood to smoke the product in question, but there may be times when a particular wood is recommended for a specifc product, and if that’s the case, we’ll be following that recommendation; we hear good things about whiskey oak smoked sugar, for example. Standard granulated or demerara? Why not both?
Sounds good, when do we start?
Soon. If you follow any of the social channels we update, you’ll know that we’ve already got the ball rolling and the first post in the series is incoming.
Sussex Smokehouse isn’t about doing the same thing forever. The nuts and seasonings we have now are the foundation, but there’s room to experiment.
Some of these tests will ideally lead to new products while I’m sure that others will be (hopefully interesting) failures.
One thing is certain, though. All of them will be fun.
What we are watching: Castlevania. You should give a go- it’s great. On re-watch X now.
What we are listening to: Nice to Meet You by Myles Smith – my little girl LOVES it.
